To prepare the Forcemeat

	4 pigeons or 1 chicken
	3 pans of minced parsley
	4 large onion
	1 pds of butter
	½ tea spoon of cinnamon
	1 tea spoon of pepper
	1 tea spoon of ginger
	½ tea spoon of natural saffron
	8 hard boiled eggs
	300 g of blanched, fried, peeled, mixed almonds
	1 cup of sugar
	Salt

To prepare the Pastille

	10 large pastille leaves
	150 g of butter
	Two eggs
	Cinnamon and chilly sugar in saucers

Preparation:

The Forcemeat 

Put the pigeons in a pressure cooker with parsley, onion, butter, salt, pepper, saffron, cinnamon, ginger, cook on a little fire and add some water.

Cook for 45 mn, remove the pigeon, add sugar and coriander and leave the sauce on fire to diminish, till the liquid is over, and Beat 2 eggs and slowly stir them into the sauce. Remove from heat.
Mix for a few minutes. Remove the pigeon's bones and put it in a container, mix almonds with sugar in another container.

Setting of the pastille

Brown 1/2 lb blanched almonds in a little oil until golden. Chop coarsely or pound with a mortar and pestle. Add 1/2 tsp cinnamon and (optionally) honey or sugar to sweeten to taste (adds none but cites recipes calling for up to 1/2c sugar--I favor a little honey as the contrast of the sweetness with the savory chicken is part of the exotic appeal of the dish). Set aside.

Butter the pastille pan, put the first couch of leaves (the smooth side underneath) overlap them to 1/3 outside the pan, put some other leaves in the center to consolidate. Have ready phillo sheets, melted butter (at least 1/4 lb), and a pastry brush. Select a shallow baking pan about 8" in diameter, such as an iron skillet. What you basically want to do is construct a pie by layering the phillo sheets in the pan and then folding them over the contents; it will probably be easiest if you cut the sheets in half or smaller, for instance into long rectangles about the width of the pan and twice as long. Brush one of the sheets with melted butter, and put it, butter side up, in the bottom of the pan, the excess dangling over the side. Add another sheet, at an angle to the first, and repeat so that you have phillo covering the bottom of the pan and dangling out all around (this is hard to describe). Use about 5 sheets to form this layer. Repeat the process, forming another layer. Now pour the chicken and sauce into the pan. Put several more buttered sheets on top of the chicken, this time not overlapping the edge--use smaller pieces or fold them in half. Spread the nut mixture on top of this. Put another layer or so of phillo, and then fold the dangling ends over the top so as to close the envelope. (Your mileage may vary on the number and details of layering the sheets). Brush the top with butter. At this point the bastila can be refrigerated if desired (this is time-consuming and you may wish to do all this the day before serving).

Just before serving, put the pan in a 350-degree oven for 15-20 minutes until the top is golden: flip it onto an oven-proof plate (or use an ordinary plate to flip it over back into the skillet) and return to brown the other side, 30-40 minutes total. Place on a serving platter, sprinkle with powdered sugar, then make fanciful decorative designs with ground cinnamon

Spread out a couch of sauce, add pieces of pigeon, sprinkler of sweet almonds and pieces of hard boiled egg, cover with leaves, do it again until the forcemeat is over, bring down, out striping leaves, glue them with churned egg and cover again with leaves, spread out some softened butter an egg over the pastille

Cook on a middle fire during 20 mn, then remove the pastille, put it on a big plate, return the other side and put it back in the cooking pan with some pieces of butter. Put back on fire for some minutes.

Put slowly the pastille in a plate to serve, decorate with arm of cross-made out of chilly sugar and cinnamon, and serve in saucers.